


Leave that Grave Dirt Behind

by Nokomis



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-23
Updated: 2013-06-23
Packaged: 2017-12-15 21:44:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/854369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nokomis/pseuds/Nokomis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quick Erica fix-it. (Post 3x03)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leave that Grave Dirt Behind

**Author's Note:**

> For Lielabell. <3 Spoilers through episode 3x03.

Erica, sputtering, pushes herself up. There’s something on her, a thick layer of it, and as it gets into her mouth she realizes it’s dirt.

Dirt. She’s laying in it, surrounded by it, and her hair is in her face. She shoves it back, takes in a full, deep breath, and stares up at the moon.

It’s full, and she can feel the tug of her wolf within her, but nothing at all like… nothing at all like how her wolf felt like tearing and rending her flesh until she transformed back there in the vault.

The vault.

“What the _hell_ ,” she says, looking up. A man is standing there, and it takes a moment through the fog that’s slowly dissipating from her mind, but she recognizes him as Derek’s uncle.

“Welcome back,” he says with a practiced smile, the kind that Erica’s still not used to seeing directed at her. 

“Back from _what_?” she asks before putting the pieces together. That last fight, the way she can’t remember how it ended…

The _dirt_.

“It’s a lot to take in.” Peter’s voice is calm and soothing, but Erica doesn’t want to be soothed. She slowly stands, feeling coltish as she stumbles on her unsteady legs.

“Why did you raise me?” She watches him carefully, using all her senses. His pulse doesn’t speed up; he’s as calm inside as he appears, and that more than anything makes her suspicious.

He clearly hadn’t done it for altruistic reasons, but his calmness in the face of her resurrection… Erica’s spent a lot of time watching people, and she knows when someone’s using her. No one gets worked up over a pawn. But so far it’s working for her benefit – well, she thinks it is, there’s a dark haze over her memory, blocking anything from what must have been the fatal blow and waking up – and she wants to know why.

He doesn’t answer her, not directly. “I remember how confusing it was, those first few minutes. Just catch your breath, sweetheart. Things will make more sense soon.”

Erica raises her eyes up to the moon, and for the first time since her transformation, the rage that builds as she stares into its light centers her. Gives her strength.

Peter is under the impression that she’s a foot soldier, some pretty face with sharp teeth that he can direct where he wants. The ‘sweetheart’ gives him away; it’s overly familiar, especially given that they’ve never spoken one on one before.

She can let him think that she’s his to command, but Erica Reyes is no one’s attack dog. She’s going to store up his secrets and use them to gain what she wanted when she took the bite in the first place: power. Autonomy. She’s free from the seizures, and she thinks that maybe, just maybe, she can use this fresh start to get free of Beacon Hills, and everything in it.

(She thinks of Boyd still locked in the vault, and wonders if he survived it. She thinks of Derek not knowing how to care for others, of Isaac with his sad eyes choosing certainty over the unknown. She has to leave, for herself, but maybe one day she can come back, for them.)

She smiles at Peter, something he’ll interpret as grateful and needy. Grave dirt falls off her as she follows him, hearing his heartbeat quicken as her steps echo his. 

This is what he wants, a willing acolyte.

She will let him believe he has it, right up until she decides who to reveal his plans to. She thinks of the Alphas and what they did to her, and thinks that perhaps, she can figure out a way to take down everyone.

The moonlight bolsters her as she grows steady on her feet.


End file.
